Top 10 Sites for 2013-2014



Primary (PreK-5)


Early Childhood


  • Disney (games & activities)
    • Videos, games, blogs & music activities are good for many different ages. The Create section lets your child explore their creativity.
  • Get Ready to Read! (reading)
    • A site to be used for developing early literacy skills. Includes games, checklists, toolkits, & a screening tool.
  • GoNoodle (gross motor skills)
    • Brain breaks for children to be used during different parts of the school day. Calming or energizing activities depending on what the child needs.
  • National Geographic for Kids (science & social studies)
    • Offers interactive resources, activities, games, & videos over countries, animals, & other science & social studies topics.
  • Seussville (reading)
    • Everything related to Dr. Seuss-books, videos, games & activities. Pick a character to learn more about & also learn about the author himself.
  • Starfall (reading)
    • An educational, pre-literacy & phonics website with many different age appropriate activities. Our teachers use the animated calendars in large group activities on their Promethean boards.
  • Switch Zoo (science)
    • Make new animals by switching their parts & play animal games, create animal music, take guided tours, or join a zoo quest. Lesson plans included.
  • The Activity Idea Place(teacher resource)
    • Over 200 lessons plan themes for toddler, preschool, & kindergarten teachers.
  • TVOKids (games & activities)
    • This website provides engaging activities & videos based on many of TVOntario children’s television shows for ages 2-5.
  • UpToTen (games & activities)
    • For kids’ ages 0-10, UpTpTen features games, music, activities, & coloring activities for building computer independence.


Elementary


  • GOQR.ME (qr codes & tools)
    • We recommend using this QR code generator. It accepts both text (300 characters) & URL.
  • Mr. Nussbaum (teacher resource)
    • This site offers tons of free games & activities in all areas of study. Attention iPad users! Most of the games work on an iPad, as well.
  • Multiplication.com (math)
    • Flashcards are a thing of the past. These exciting games keep our students interested & practicing their multiplication at the same time.
  • Record mp3 (creativity tool)
    • Free audio recording that assigns each one a link. We use this link to create our QR codes. Super easy to use!
  • SafeShare.TV (teacher tool)
    • If you’re a teacher who shows YouTube videos at school, this is the safest way to watch & share! Simply paste the link & the site will generate a safe link.
  • StudyJams (student resource)
    • This site offers free math & science videos for students, on various topics.
  • Sumdog (math)
    • Students stay actively engaged in this free multiplayer math fact website. Our school joins the Omaha-area Sumdog competitions throughout the year.
  • Tammy’s Technology Tips for Teachers (teacher resource)
    • Full of free resources & ideas on using technology in the classroom. Check out Tip of the Week & Google Stuff.
  • TodaysMeet (collaborative tool)
    • Students can connect in real time to brainstorm, answer, or have a discussion lead by the teacher.
  • Tynker – Hour of Code (computer science)
    • Coding for beginners! The Tynker Starter Pack has six lessons to keep your students engaged & interacting.


Primary Language Arts


  • ABCYa.com – Animate (language arts tools)
    • Students can create animated GIFs by drawing, typing, & inserting images. Have students create animations over vocabulary words, a book review, a poem, or a character from a book.
  • Alphabet Organizer (phonics)
    • Students create an alphabet book or chart with words & pictures of each letter of the alphabet.
  • Leading to Reading (reading)
    • Reading is Fundamental’s language skills website for preschoolers. A fun & interactive site that offers stories, games, music, & more.
  • Letter Generator (writing)
    • Need a way for students to practice letter writing? Students can choose practicing either a friendly or business letter.
  • Poetry Idea Engine (writing)
    • An interactive tool that teaches students how to create four types of poem formats – haiku, limerick, cinquain, & free verse.
  • Spell with flickr (spelling)
    • A fun way for students to practice spelling with this user friendly website.
  • Storyline Online (reading)
    • From the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, Storyline Online is a collection of video recordings of children’s stories being read by famous actors.
  • Teach Your Monster To Read 2 – Fun With Words (reading)
    • The sequel to the Teach Your Monster To Read, this site helps students improve their speed & accuracy with games that focus on recognizing letters, sounds, & words.
  • The Art of Storytelling (writing)
    • From the Delaware Art Museum, students can Tell a Story, by writing & recording a story inspired by a work of art. They can also Picture a Story, by creating their own masterpiece & telling the story behind it.
  • Trapped! Punctuation (grammar)
    • A game that helps kids use the correct punctuation marks in sentences (example – question marks, periods, parenthesis, commas, & quotations).


Primary Math


  • Bedtime Math (teacher resources)
    • Fun math activities that includes using common household objects for real-world learning at home or at school.
  • Cool Math 4 Kids (games)
    • A popular math gaming site for early childhood & elementary students, with games in sorting, numbers, addition, multiplication, fractions, & more.
  • Estimation 180 (number sense)
    • Estimation challenges with 180 pictures that contain an image for them to estimate; like height, quantity, or volume. Improve their number sense & problem solving skills by sharing their reasoning.
  • Everyday Mathematics - eToolkit (toolkit)
    • An online collection of math tools for elementary teachers to use on their Promethean Board as a whole group activity.
  • HOODA MATH (games)
    • Engaging math games that are linked to Common Core State Standards. Good for elementary & middle school students.
  • Multiplication.com (operations)
    • Dozens of games for students to play to practice their multiplication skills.
  • Sheppard Software (games)
    • A fantastic collection of math games with 19 different topics for PreK-5.
  • Thinking Blocks (number sense)
    • Provides interactive templates with brightly colored blocks to model & solve word problems in addition, multiplication, fractions, & ratios. A great site to use on your Promethean Board.
  • Visual Fractions (fractions)
    • 7 categories of visuals, lessons, games, & fraction designer pages for students to explore & learn about fractions.
  • Yummy Math (teacher resources)
    • This site is designed for sharing mathematics problems & scenarios based on events happening in the world today.


Primary Science


  • 3 Roller Coaster Creators (physics)
  • Big Huge Labs – Trading Card (presentation tools)
    • A fun photo-editing site, but the Trading Card creator is great for the classroom. Students can add pictures, color, titles, descriptions, & symbols. A great way to make vocabulary or classification cards.
  • BrainPOP Jr. – GameUp (science tools)
    • Designed for PreK-3, Jr.’s GameUp features a lot of great games & activities. Their science games covers many topics with over 55+ games.
  • Explore (science videos)
    • Students can watch & learn about wildlife & the world. With live cams & lesson plans.
  • Harness the Power of Wind (ecology)
    • An interactive activity designed to help students learn how wind turbines generate power & they can test the efficiency by changing height, wind speed, & propeller size.
  • Molecularium (chemistry)
    • A virtual amusement park based around atoms & molecules with 4 areas to choose from. There are fun videos, games, & short lessons to explore.
  • Ocean Track (biology)
    • CSIRO has been tagging sea life off the coast of Australia for years. See where these animals travel, but also take a 3D dive with them.
  • Simple Machines (physics)
  • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History – Virtual Trip (science tools)
    • Take your students to the Smithsonian’s NMNH virtually with 3D panoramas & snapshots for students to explore the exhibits & artifacts.
  • Snapshot Serengeti (biology)
    • More than 200 cameras take pictures of animals in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Students can help researchers count & identify the animals by the process of elimination.


Primary Social Studies


  • Community Club (civics)
    • 54 nonfiction read-along books with words, images, & sounds that teach preschoolers about the different professions found in their community.
  • Google World Wonders Project (geography)
    • Using Google Maps Street View, students can take 3D tours of locations all around the world like the White House to the Antarctica.
  • Historic Places (history)
    • Students can get maps, information, & images about historic places found all over the U.S. & world.
  • If You Were President (government)
    • A quick activity from Scholastic where students can learn about the basics of balancing budget.
  • Interactive Historical Thinking Poster (Elementary) (history tools)
    • An interactive poster for elementary students showing them how to use clues from primary & secondary sources to ask & answer good questions.
  • National Geographic Education (social studies tools)
    • Offers interactive resources & activities in topics over geography & environmental science for teachers, families, students, & kids.
  • Scribble States (geography)
    • A connect the dots game for students where they have to guess which state they just drew before the time runs out.
  • Secret Millionaire Club (economics)
    • An animated series that features Warren Buffett that teaches the basic of good financial decision making & simple lessons to starting a business.
  • TIME for Kids (current events)
    • TIME for Kids's website, which is full of news, events around the world, homework help, photos & videos, links to sites, & extras for lessons.
  • World Geography Games (geography)
    • Map games to improve geographical knowledge for students over the world, North America, & the United States.


Secondary (6-12)


Middle School


  • Build with Chrome (creativity tool)
    • Build with online LEGO bricks!
  • EdTechTeacher (teacher resource)
    • EdTechTeacher helps teachers, schools, & school leaders develop 21st century learning environments.
  • EdTechTeacher: Great Science Links (teacher resource)
    • A list of several technology resources for teaching science from EdTechTeacher.
  • EdTechTeacher: Technology Tools for Teaching & Learning (teacher resource)
    • A list of technology tools focused on learning goals that encourage critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, & community involvement from EdTechTeacher.
  • Free Technology for Teachers (teacher resource)
    • Richard Byrne is the creator of this daily blog. He shares information about free technology resources for teachers.
  • Google Drive (productivity)
    • A freeware web-based office suite that allows users to store, access, create, edit & share documents online, while collaborating with other users live. Documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms & drawings can be created.
  • Incredibox (music)
    • Interactive Flash website will set the effects & conduct an acapella beatbox vocal group.
  • Just Cloud (file storage)
    • Just Cloud allows anyone to backup & easily share files & folders with friends, family, & colleagues. This cloud has unlimited storage & lets you access it from any device.
  • NeoK12 (teacher resource)
    • A K-12 award winning collection of educational videos & innovative lessons, games, & puzzles.
  • Padlet (collaboration)
    • Create an online bulletin board that displays information using images, links, & videos. Settings allow the wall to be private, public, or moderated. This site was previously named Wallwisher.


High School


  • Cartoons for the Classroom (civics & government)
    • Discuss current events & the nuances of political satire with lessons plans based on editorial cartoons.
  • Codecademy (computer science)
    • The concepts of coding is at the forefront of this site, & have led the way in letting newbie coders experiment with manipulating computer programming.
  • Constitute (civics & government)
    • This site hosts the constitutions of 191 countries. It is a fantastic resource for comparing global governments.
  • Digital Public Library of America (research)
    • This site is a collection of publicly available photos, manuscripts, books, sounds, & movies/videos.
  • Down For Everyone Or Just Me? (teacher resource)
    • This handy site will tell you if a website is up or if that site is down. A great way to check a site you haven’t used in a while & want to use again for a lesson.
  • Economics in Plain English (economics)
    • Support student understanding of basic economic concepts in the perspective of real-world scenarios.
  • Flippity.net (google script)
    • Create instant flashcards from Google spreadsheets & make individual sheets for unit or chapter tests. Incorporating images with URLs is a nice bonus.
  • GeoGuessr & GeoSettr (geography)
    • The site drops you blindly in a location somewhere on planet Earth; using the navigation tools, survey your surroundings & make a guess as to your location. GeoSettr lets you create your own GeoGuessr challenge.
  • Popplet (mindmapping)
    • This is such a great web/mind-mapping site with a clean, bright interface. Moving graphic organizers to the web makes incorporating images & video a visible option.
  • Socrative (student response system)
    • This is a free student response system with a clean interface, a variety of response options, & easy student login. The app feature expands ease-of-use for all.


Secondary Language Arts


  • Awesome Stories (reading)
    • This site features stories from history, classic literature, movies, & helps tells the story behind the story with primary sources, videos, documents, & more.
  • DebateGraph (communication)
    • Evaluate the opinions in hot-button topics by exploring the webbed diagrams of different aspects for a debate.
  • Duolingo (world languages)
    • A free language learning service that allows you to read, listen, & translate words & phrases in a variety of interactive activities. It also tracks your progress. 5 languages are currently available with more on the way.
  • Hemingway (writing)
    • A free tool designed for students to analyze their writing. The site will highlights parts of their writing that use passive voice, adverbs, & complex sentences. This factors into a general readability of their passage.
  • inklewriter (composition)
    • Provides a platform for students to write interactive stories or “choose your own adventure” style by linking pieces of their stories together.
  • National Novel Writing Month – Young Writers Program (composition)
    • November is National Novel Writing Month, but students can use this site all year long to keep them inspired in writing. Includes pep talks from bestselling authors, a dare machine, forums, & a summer camp.
  • oneword (writing)
    • A simple writing prompt generator. Students are presented with one word & have sixty seconds to write whatever comes to mind.
  • Rewordify.com (reading)
    • The purpose of this site is to help students read complex text passages & rephrasing in simpler, easy to understand terms.
  • StoryToolz (writing)
    • A collection of tools for writers who are struggling with writing ideas. Features a story idea generator, random conflicts, cliché buster, & more.
  • SummarizeThis (reading)
    • A reading tool that summarizes the main points of long text articles.


Secondary Math


  • Cool Math (games)
    • A popular math gaming site for middle & high school students with games for prealgebra, algebra, precalculus, & calculus.
  • Desmos (toolkit)
    • An online graphing calculator, which allows you to share equations & graphs by using Bitly links.
  • eGlossary (6-12) (toolkit)
    • From McGraw Hill, provides written & verbal definitions & explanations of mathematics terms.
  • Get the Math (algebra)
    • Algebra-based mathematics challenges in the real-world. Features short videos of professionals explaining & showing how they use math in their professions.
  • Graphing Stories (number sense)
    • Features 24 short videos that tell a mathematics story that students have to graph to tell how it works & where the idea came from.
  • Math Disk (teacher resources)
    • Teachers can use to develop interactive mathematics worksheets through the Math Builder tool that creates models students can use online or offline.
  • ULearniversity (algebra)
    • Watch video tutorials & practice the concepts taught in the videos. The site also provides instant feedback on practice problems.
  • Web 2.0 Calc (toolkit)
    • A free online scientific calculator that provides basic & advanced mathematical functions. Included are formulas, graphing, equations, & more.
  • What's My Angle? (toolkit)
    • 10 online protractor activities that test a student’s knowledge & can be used on the Promethean Board.
  • Would You Rather? (activities)
    • Students are presented a picture with a mathematics problem, & have to choose between two choices & justify it.


Secondary Science


  • 3D Toad (biology)
    • Zoom in & out of 360 degree interactive images. Galleries include: dissections, skeletons, geology, fossils, & chemistry.
  • Discovery Channel - Curiosity (science videos)
    • Videos from television show, Curiosity relates scientific discoveries to everyday life. Includes question videos for great classroom discussion topics.
  • Everest: Rivers of Ice (ecology)
    • An interactive site that has videos, before (1920) & after (2007) photos of glaciers, & panoramic images of valleys & glaciers of the Himalayas.
  • instaGrok (research tools)
    • Using a wonder wheel to show search results, quickly get lists of facts, websites, videos, images, quizzes, & a glossary. Then place the information you like into a built-in notebook.
  • Learn Chemistry (chemistry)
    • Lessons for teaching chemistry for all grade levels. Be sure to check out the Faces of Chemistry series & the Visual Elements Periodic Table.
  • MinutePhysics (science videos)
    • A YouTube channel that provides short physics lessons using animations to explain a topic.
  • SciShow (science videos)
    • Hank Green from Crash Course!, sparks students’ curiosity with videos over a variety of science topics.
  • State of Flux (ecology)
    • Features 255 before & after pictures of locations worldwide after effects & impacts of climate change, natural disasters, & land use.
  • The Why Files (science resources)
    • Designed for students to learn more about the science concepts behind news stories.
  • Thingdom (biology)
    • A fun & challenging game to learn about genetics from the London Science Museum. Select & care for your Thing, & then create an offspring based on certain traits like stripes & size.


Secondary Social Studies


  • Address America (civics)
    • Stump speeches keep ideas focused & consistent. Have students write a six-word stump speech over issues in America & then share them.
  • CNN Student News (current events)
    • 18 educational games over citizenship & government, ways to make an impact, & curriculum units.
  • Endangered Languages Project (cultural studies)
    • 7,000 languages are disappearing, & taking cultural heritages with them. The Alliance for Linguistic Diversity is protecting linguistic diversity & has available audio, text, & videos of native speakers of these languages.
  • GeoGuessr & GeoSettr (geography)
    • GeoGuessr is a geography game using visual clues in Google Streetview to find your location. Geosettr allows you create your own GeoGuesser game with 5 rounds.
  • Google Cultural Institute (cultural studies)
  • HipHughes History (social studies videos)
    • Keith Hughes is a high school history teacher that has produced over 200 short, upbeat lectures on topics in U.S. & world history.
  • Historical Dictionary (history resources)
    • HistoryToday offers nice, quick, & concise entries for students to look up definitions of terms frequently used in history text.
  • iCivics (civics)
    • 18 educational games over citizenship & government, ways to make an impact, & curriculum units.
  • InfuseLearning (lesson activities)
    • A free student response system that works with any mobile device & computer. Ask a question or create quizzes, with multiple question formats.
  • MyHistro (history resources)
    • A timeline builder & map creation tool using Google Maps. Have students build either a personal timeline or one around a theme.


SPED


SPED Learners


  • Do2Learn (teacher resource)
    • Provides free resources over learning, social, & behavioral disabilities. They also provide communication cards & transitional guides for employment & life skills.
  • Doorway Online About Time (math)
    • For students who have difficulty telling time, this site includes showing how time passes.
  • Geoboard by The Math Learning Center (math)
    • This site is an online virtual geoboard by The Math Learning Center. For students that are experiencing fine motor issues can use this tool to help compensate.
  • Hopeful Parents (parent/teacher resource)
    • A great blog for parents of children with disabilities is found at this site.
  • Kids Can Dream – Social Stories (parent/teacher resource)
    • Kids Can Dream has two pages full of links to social stories in all sorts of areas, like Personal, Hygiene, & Home/School.
  • PBISWorld.com (teacher resource)
    • Contains links to interventions, supports, resources, & data collection tools.
  • Pinterest (parent/teacher resource)
    • As an educator I use this website all the time when looking for ideas for social stories & other special education programming ideas.
  • Rewordify.com (reading)
    • The purpose of this site is to help students read complex text passages & rephrasing in simpler, easy to understand terms.
  • SummarizeThis (reading)
    • A reading tool that summarizes the main points of long text articles is the focus of this site.
  • TeacherVision (teacher resource)
    • This is a resource for teachers in PreK-12. It has thousands of lessons plans, printable sheets, & resources. Try a free trial.


Speech & Language Therapy


  • ABCya.com (educational games)
    • Students can play quality games in language arts. Student can also play games over math & create animations, cars, & word clouds. For grades K-5.
  • Auditory Bombardment (therapy tools)
    • SLPs at Hillcrest Elementary have set up a site for students to use at home to practice listening to articulation targets.
  • Funbrain – Mad Libs Junior (language arts)
    • Students love mad libs for their fun, silly stories. A great way for students to practice parts of speech.
  • GameGoo (educational games)
    • Part of the Earobics website, Game Goo provides games for literacy & language arts skills. Designed for elementary students. Have students practice matching initial & final sounds, & more.
  • GeekSLP (SLP blogs)
    • Barbara Fernandes, an SLP who is the founder of Smarty Ears apps, runs her own blog with recommendations for apps & other tech gadgets for use in speech therapy.
  • LEGO Comic Creator (language arts)
    • Who doesn’t love LEGOs? Students can create comics using LEGOs. They can practice story sequencing & elements.
  • LessonPix – Clipart (visual supports)
    • Need some visual supports? LessonPix’s FREE clipart is extensive with a large selection of templates to create from.
  • Make Beliefs Comix (language arts)
    • A simple way to create comics with diverse characters. The highlight of this site is it offers lesson plans, suggestions for students with special needs, & 350 free printables.
  • Speech Gadget (SLP blogs)
    • Deb Tomarakos, an SLP who works with special need students with speech difficulties. She has an interest in bringing technology into therapy. Great information on apps & websites to use.
  • Sublime Speech (SLP blogs)
    • Another SLP, Danielle Reed works with students in elementary using fun activities & technology. Her site is full of app reviews & lesson materials.


Last Updated - May 2014